So, What Do I Need To Do?

[kidkage]

I have Cubase Le5.

I bought an Akai MPK Mini

to use to put "score" sounding parts under my music, layer kick and snare samples under my acoustic drum tracks, trigger other sounds, etc.
As well as make my own samples (like, record a drum kit hit, guitar chord, etc. and assign it to a Akai pad or key then insert it into the song)
Really, just experiment with any and all sounds that I can on this thing

The problem is that I dont really know how to do that at all.
Do I need more software for any or all of that?
So far all I've got is the Akai hooked up in Cubase and can hear what I assume are the generic keyboard/ drum parts of either the keyboard or Cubase.
I don't know how to change how hard I have to hit the pads on the akai, or how or of I can move different sounds I like to different pads or keys

And I know not a thing about virtual instruments. So if Cubase has a pretty sweet selection or something already, I really don't know.

I will appreciate any and all help

 

[TetraFish]

You need to use the virtual instruments that come with cubase.

You can create an instrument in the devices menu, and then create a MIDI track and route the out to the virtual instrument you created and the input to "All MIDI Inputs". Then your keys should trigger the instrument you've selected. I'm sure I'm missing something but this should get you going.

 

[kidkage]

It looks like something like this is what I want/need Steinberg HALion Player: Shop Pro Audio & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend
Now, im kind of new and dumb to all of this computer based stuff, so for all i know cubase might already have this since its steinberg, or there may be something free and better out there



p.s- i should let you all know that im in that cubase/daw stage of being new, acquiring things, then learning how to use and map the stuff

any inputs?

 

[TetraFish]

I'm sure LE comes with at least some virtual instruments.

 

[Guitargodgt]

I'm sure LE comes with at least some virtual instruments.

Just Halion and I never got it to work in LE. Weirdest thing, it works fine in Cubase 5, but won't even load in LE4.

 

[kidkage]

Bump.

Anyone out there?

I've played around and figured more things out. I want to know if there is a way to map out what i want to play from the pads in Cubase?

 

[PDP]

What pads in Cubase?

I personally havent found Steinberg(Cubase) to be good at Virtual Instruments, I find 90% of Halion to be outdated cheese. I have the Grand 3 (piano) from Steinberg. The sounds are adequate but it was very overpriced (250.00) in what you get. One thing that is good about Halion is that they run well in Cubase with very low CPU usage.

Native Instruments Komplete Elements is a great starter program with a ton of good sounds for 79 bucks.

I'm not positive about this but I think getting the controls on that controller to work in Cubase is a huge learning curve, you can ofcourse just use the controls on your VST via the mouse on the screen.

 

[kidkage]

What pads in Cubase?

I personally havent found Steinberg(Cubase) to be good at Virtual Instruments, I find 90% of Halion to be outdated cheese. I have the Grand 3 (piano) from Steinberg. The sounds are adequate but it was very overpriced (250.00) in what you get. One thing that is good about Halion is that they run well in Cubase with very low CPU usage.

Native Instruments Komplete Elements is a great starter program with a ton of good sounds for 79 bucks.

I'm not positive about this but I think getting the controls on that controller to work in Cubase is a huge learning curve, you can ofcourse just use the controls on your VST via the mouse on the screen.

The drum pads on the Akai.

Yeah Halion1 really sucks. Im waiting to use a trial of Halion4. I definitely want to find a proper program to use, but Im trying to figure out how to use this damn controller first

I mean. Just. Damn im so lost on this stuff.

This is my first dive in virtual instruments, and I cant help but feel like the manual that came with this thing is not nearly informative enough.

 

[kidkage]

I'm not positive about this but I think getting the controls on that controller to work in Cubase is a huge learning curve, you can ofcourse just use the controls on your VST via the mouse on the screen.

THATS WHAT THE KNOBS ARE FOR?! To control VST and other plug in parameters

See how messed up I am? I'm probably so lost because I'm not even sure what I'm aiming for

 

[Guitargodgt]

This is my first dive in virtual instruments, and I cant help but feel like the manual that came with this thing is not nearly informative enough.

Hey this would be a good tutorial so could you ask exactly what your trying to do? Map the pads for drums? Use your keyboards on halion?

 

[kidkage]

Hey this would be a good tutorial so could you ask exactly what your trying to do? Map the pads for drums? Use your keyboards on halion?

I'm trying to learn how to do so many things that I'm getting them all tangled together and losing myself in them.
Prepare for a relatively long reply:

 

[kidkage]

I'm trying to learn how to do so many things that I'm getting them all tangled together and losing myself in them.
Prepare for a relatively long reply:

I should point out that I'm new to MIDI, Cubase, DAWs, and all computer related recording.
I had previously recorded into a Tascam standalone.
So
I'll try to make this as straightforward as possible

1-On the akai I've figured out how to generally use it.
I can open up Halion1 that comes with LE5 choose whatever instrument, and play it through the keys. Now, my concern in that area is that I don't really like the sound of any of the stock halion1 instruments so I need to look for a better suite with more realistic sounds.

2.The pads. My main goal is to use the pad section as a sampler with (mainly drum) samples either from a VSTi, or my own created samples. Now the problems there: I don't know how to pick and map and certain drum kit elements to the pads. I also don't know how/where to get/make samples. That was part of my big draw to Halion4 is that its packed with tons of virtual instruments and is a sampler so I can make and use samples.
2. From what I understand I can set up the knobs on the Akai (as well as the pads) completely independently. If I want, I can even use them as a mixer by setting up the knobs to control volume of 8 different tracks, etc. But. I dont know how.
Sure, I can read the instructions and I know that #CC is control change, etc., etc. But since this is my first experience with MIDI and the like, learning what things like Control Change are was/is a challenge. From what I think I understand everything has a number or something so for example:
Let's say I set up the CC on a knob (which can go from 0 to 127) on the akai to #[X]. How do I pick what I want it to control in Cubase or on a plugin (Cubase Filter, or a different plug in, whatever). Is there some universal code? Do I have to set it up myself or what?

 

[PDP]

At one point, Yamaha controllers had a software driver that linked all that up for you, M-audio claimed to have one, I never got it to work. In short you will have to spend some time working that out, creating maps etc one by one.

 

[Guitargodgt]

1-On the akai I've figured out how to generally use it.
I can open up Halion1 that comes with LE5 choose whatever instrument, and play it through the keys. Now, my concern in that area is that I don't really like the sound of any of the stock halion1 instruments so I need to look for a better suite with more realistic sounds.

Ok well the good news is that's the hard part. The bad news is that "more realistic sounds" almost always = $$$ a budget and a goal of what you want would be good here.

2.The pads. My main goal is to use the pad section as a sampler with (mainly drum) samples either from a VSTi, or my own created samples. Now the problems there: I don't know how to pick and map and certain drum kit elements to the pads. I also don't know how/where to get/make samples. That was part of my big draw to Halion4 is that its packed with tons of virtual instruments and is a sampler so I can make and use samples.

Yep I could do a vid on this kind of thing, also on how to map those knobs to do something useful (except with halion one, those knobs would be kind of useless).

2. From what I understand I can set up the knobs on the Akai (as well as the pads) completely independently. If I want, I can even use them as a mixer by setting up the knobs to control volume of 8 different tracks, etc. But. I dont know how.
Sure, I can read the instructions and I know that #CC is control change, etc., etc. But since this is my first experience with MIDI and the like, learning what things like Control Change are was/is a challenge. From what I think I understand everything has a number or something so for example:
Let's say I set up the CC on a knob (which can go from 0 to 127) on the akai to #[X]. How do I pick what I want it to control in Cubase or on a plugin (Cubase Filter, or a different plug in, whatever). Is there some universal code? Do I have to set it up myself or what?

You do have to set this up, but it's pretty much a one time thing and it's done. Again, I could to a tutorial on this as well but it may take me a little bit of time.

What I would focus on right now is the basics of getting the sounds you want, then getting all that extra functionality you want.

Those pads are going to be configured chromatically by default, but that's worthless on a GM mapped kit (general midi).

I'm probably confusing you, but in many cases the easiest way to map the pads is on the device itself or through the utility software... however to do this you need the target notes. On a GM kit, C1 (note 36) is the kick, 38 is the snare etc... You would have to know this to map it right and it's gonna depend on the software you decide to get. I'm not a big Stein fan when it comes to their VSTi.

The full version of Halion is $350 through steinberg. But IMO there is better stuff available for that price area, like Kontakt 4 for instance (very nice sounds all around).

 

[kidkage]

Ok well the good news is that's the hard part. The bad news is that "more realistic sounds" almost always = $$$ a budget and a goal of what you want would be good here.



Yep I could do a vid on this kind of thing, also on how to map those knobs to do something useful (except with halion one, those knobs would be kind of useless).



You do have to set this up, but it's pretty much a one time thing and it's done. Again, I could to a tutorial on this as well but it may take me a little bit of time.

What I would focus on right now is the basics of getting the sounds you want, then getting all that extra functionality you want.

Those pads are going to be configured chromatically by default, but that's worthless on a GM mapped kit (general midi).

I'm probably confusing you, but in many cases the easiest way to map the pads is on the device itself or through the utility software... however to do this you need the target notes. On a GM kit, C1 (note 36) is the kick, 38 is the snare etc... You would have to know this to map it right and it's gonna depend on the software you decide to get. (ohhhhh ok. that was a confusing thing for me. i didnt know if i was supposed to assign my own notes to the VSTi's, or if they were already presets that I had to figure out. At which point figuring them out would be a problem for me. Because I wouldn't know where to look. I figure it'll be different on something better, but must not be possible on Halion1 since it's built in to Cubase) I'm not a big Stein fan when it comes to their VSTi.

The full version of Halion is $350 through steinberg. But IMO there is better stuff available for that price area, like Kontakt 4 for instance (very nice sounds all around).

Well, I had my budget for a new keyboard controller at $500. But there's no point of a new keyboard with nothing I like to play. Besides, I haven't even used the MPK Mini yet really. And I'm starting to figure out things that show me it's a solid product.
So, I'm going to make that budget my virtual instrument budget. I'm really interested in Komplete 8. It's got Kontakt 5, Guitar Rig 5, and tons and tons of other stuff. I've been searching a while and it seems that Native Instruments' stuff is what I'm always directed back to, so I'm going to go with Komplete 8. 84% savings on the bundle seems attractive since I want a lot of instruments anyway.

Here's a screen shot of the MPK software. I figure it might help:

In the beginning all of this was foreign to me. Buuut I'm starting to understand it more now. After hours of research